Simulations Show the Most Cost-effective Way to Buy Medical Cannabis

Smoked cannabis as an adjunctive second-line therapy to treat chronic peripheral neuropathy can be both effective and cost-effective. The results of a new study simulating its use in one million patients are published in Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. 

In the article entitled "A Cost-Effectiveness Model for Adjunctive Smoked Cannabis in the Treatment of Chronic Neuropathic Pain," David Grelotti, MD, University of California San Diego (La Jolla) and co-authors from UCSD, University of California Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research (San Diego), and Columbia University (New York, NY) created a computer simulation to compare the cost of usual first-, second-, and third-line care with those supplemented with smoked cannabis. They modeled efficacy and adverse events based on clinical trial and other existing study data, and derived cannabis cost from retail market pricing.

"With the opioid crisis continuing unabated, it is essential to understand whether cannabis might offer a safe, effective, and economically sound approach to pain management. This article offers new data that will help evaluate this possibility," says Editor-in-Chief Daniele Piomelli, PhD, PharmD, University of California-Irvine, School of Medicine.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health. 

This article has been republished from materials provided by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publisher. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

Reference 

Tyree Griffin A., Reith Sarkar, Brandon K. Bellows, Ronald J. Ellis, Joseph Hampton Atkinson, Thomas D. Marcotte, Mark S. Wallace et al. A Cost-Effectiveness Model for Adjunctive Smoked Cannabis in the Treatment of Chronic Neuropathic Pain. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, 2019; DOI: 10.1089/can.2018.0027